‘Huge traffic, narrow roads and haphazard driving are major factors causing accidents’
DHADING, Aug 22: As many as 414 people lost their lives in different road accidents in Dhading in the last five years.
According to the District Traffic Police Office (DTPO), Gajuri, 892 road accidents were reported in these five years. Some 125 accidents took place in the fiscal year 2019/20 (2076/77 BS) alone. Forty six trucks, 29 buses, 24 jeeps and cars, eight tractors, 74 three-wheelers met with accidents claiming the lives of 53 - 40 males, nine females and four children - and severely injuring 149 other people — 110 males, 31 females and eight children.
When will it end?
Fiscal year 2018/19 witnessed a total of 138 accidents in which 70 trucks, 44 buses, 24 jeeps and cars, 55 motorbikes and eight other vehicles met with mishaps, killing 93 people (68 males, 20 females and five children). A total of 180 other people sustained injuries during these accidents.
As many as 218 vehicles met with 155 accidents that took place in 2017/18. The death toll during that year was 117 while 207 more people got wounded in those accidents.
Similarly, fiscal years 2016/17 and 2015/16 reported 98 and 90 road accidents. Ninety people were killed in 2016/17 while the number of those killed in different accidents in 2015/16 was 61.
According to the traffic police, most accidents here in the district occurred due to speedy driving. Drunk driving, fatigue in drivers due to long driving, pressure, poor road conditions and malfunctioning vehicles are other factors leading to road mishaps.
File Photo: Republica
Police Inspector at the DTPO, Gajuri, Netra Prasad Bhatta added that huge numbers of traffic, narrow bends, dilapidated roads and haphazard driving are responsible for an increased number of road accidents in the district. “Traffic police personnel have been mobilized round the clock in a bid to minimize the road mishaps,” said Bhatta, adding that operation of refresh center targeting the drivers of long route vehicles, health checkups, distribution of awareness brochures, spreading awareness through miking are some of the attempts made by the traffic police to check road accidents and ensure road safety.
Most roads reported in the districts occur along the Prithivi Highway. As many as 13,000 four wheelers and more than seven thousand two-wheelers ply the section of highway that lies in the district as Dhading is one of the entry points to the capital city Kathmandu.
